It is not that people do not know how to make peace or reach political compromises, as some international organizations naively suppose; it is a matter of motivation. In the south, in the main and for the moment, the stakeholders (to use development jargon) have other objectives. The cost of peace and political settlement is estimated as too high by the scrap merchants who have risen to such prominence and manifestly want to retain, or increase, their economic and political status. Perhaps most importantly of all, the Habar Gidir colonizers of so much land and property in southern Somalia have little desire to return it to its previous owners. Although in the middle of June 2002 some of his own close Ayr kinsmen publicly expressed their lack of confidence in 'Abdulqassim's administration, many of his clansmen must feel that they need him (or some other Habar Gidir) to safeguard their stolen riches.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 709